This invention relates to a portable mortar mixer to be used by contractors and builders.
Mechanical mixers for mixing or churning materials are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 54,597 to Quick; U.S. Pat. No. 78,706 to Wood; U.S. Pat. No. 506,404 to Kyte; U.S. Pat. No. 1,714,588 to Bushnell; U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,950 to Bakewell; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,910 to Estis.
None of the known mixers are portable. What is needed is a portable mortar mixer which can be transported from job site to job site easily, and also can be lifted to a position at a building site adjacent where the workman is using mortar. The advantage of the present invention is that it can be operated and used where the operator is located thereby eliminating the need to transport mixed mortar to the workman.
Further, known mixers have an axle holding the paddle, which axle extends across the entire mixing tub. What is needed is a paddle mounted to the axle in cantilever fashion so that the paddle can be moved to one side and the mixing tub cleaned without interference of the axle.
Further what is needed is a mortar mixer where the axle bearings are located outside the trough where mixing occurs so that the mortar does not interfere with the operation of the bearings.
A portable mixer having an open-top, semicircular mixing trough supported by a base fixedly mounted to the mixing trough. The base is provided with a pair of spaced-apart box channels extending through the base for receiving forklift tines. A paddle is positioned within the mixing tub, and is mounted in cantilever fashion to an axle with the paddle mounted in depending relation to the axle. The axle is carried by a bearing located outside the trough and the axle is aligned with the axial center of the semicircular trough. An actuating system is used to rotate the axle back and forth causing the paddle to sweep back and forth within the trough.